Original Items: Only One Set Available. This is it! Every young "Old West" fans dream: A real Colt Cowboy Six-shooter! Even better, it comes with a fantastic period tooled brown leather open top holster attached to a tooled leather cartridge belt with 31 cartridge loops. This is secured with a lovely nickel alloy belt buckle. Just a magnificent "Cowboy" set, sure to delight any "Old West" Americana collector.

This very nice Colt Frontier Six Shooter SAA (Single Action Army) Revolver has a "gunfighter" length 5 1/2" barrel, with the standard blued finish, and lovely period replacement Colt hard rubber grips. The revolver's serial number is 111229, marked on the frame, grip frame, and trigger guard, so it was built in 1884. The loading gate is marked with assembly number 160. As this revolver was produced after 1883, it correctly has no serial number marking on the cylinder, so this is an "ALL MATCHING" example.

The revolver is in excellent condition, sure to delight any Americana Collector. It was reblued at some point, and since then has has just a bit of wear, so it looks great. At this point, we believe that it may have been sent back to the factory to have the barrel replaced. It still has a Crisp Colt Address marking on the top of the barrel:

COLT'S PT. F. A. MFG. CO. HARTFORD. CT. U.S.A.

The left side of the frame has the Colt patent dates still faintly legible:

PAT. SEPT. 19. 1871.
* JULY. 2. --72.
* JAN. 19. --75.

The side of the barrel also has a roll stamped marking on the left side of the barrel, which is still crisp:

COLT FRONTIER SIX SHOOTER

Colt considered these revolvers to be the same as the Single Action Army for record keeping, and they were grouped under the same serial number series. Between serial number 45000 and 65000, the "FRONTIER SIX SHOOTER" marking was etched onto the side of the barrel, but for many years it did not appear. This changed in 1889, when it returned, roll stamped onto all .44-40 versions of this revolver until the end of production. As this revolver was made in 1884, there is no way for it to have been produced with this barrel, so it was sent back to the factory in the late 19th century for a rebarrel. The installed barrel has the correct sight and shows no signs of shortening.

The trigger guard is stamped 44.CF. on the side, also indicating the .44-40 WCF caliber. The "Frontier Six Shooter" model was almost identical to the .45 "Long Colt" chambered Single Action Army model, except that it was designed for Winchester .44-40 ammunition, also called .44 W.C.F., which was and is a popular "cowboy" ammunition. While some may question why colt made guns chambered for a competitor's cartridge, having a repeating rifle and revolver that took the same ammunition was a big selling point.

With the reblued finish and period replacement grips, the revolver looks great, with just a bit of wear since it was redone. Mechanically, the action is smooth, with a good cylinder lock up, and crisp dry fire. We did not notice any finicky behavior during cycling, though the action only has three of the four clicks, with the 2nd "reloading" position on the tumbler currently non functional. The bore is in great shape, with just a bit of fouling on the lands, and a mostly bright finish. The ejector door swings open easily, and the ejector itself works great. Overall this is a great pistol with an incredible look.

Pistols such as this are extremely difficult to find today at any reasonable price, especially with period holsters and belts! This example is just ideal for any Wild West Collection. A great collector's revolver, ready to display.

Specifications:

Year of Manufacture: 1884
Caliber: .44-40 Winchester
Ammunition Type: Centerfire Cartridge
Barrel Length: 7 1/2 inches
Overall Length: 13 inches
Action: Single Action
Feed System: 6 Shot Revolver

History of the Colt Single Single Action Army

Bound by the Rollin White patent (#12,648, April 3, 1855) and not wanting to pay a royalty fee to Smith & Wesson, Colt could not begin development of bored-through revolver cylinders for metallic cartridge use until April 4, 1869. For the design, Colt turned to two of its best engineers: William Mason and Charles Brinckerhoff Richards who had developed a number of revolvers and black powder conversions for the company. Their effort was designed for the United States government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and adopted as the standard military service revolver. Production began in 1873 with the Single Action Army model 1873, also referred to as the "New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol".

The very first production Single Action Army, serial number 1, thought lost for many years after its production, was found in a barn in Nashua, New Hampshire in the early 1900s. It was chambered in .45 Colt, a centerfire design containing charges of up to 40 grains (2.6 g) of fine-grained black powder and a 255-grain (16.5 g) blunt roundnosed bullet. Relative to period cartridges and most later handgun rounds, it was quite powerful in its full loading.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver, along with the 1870 and 1875 Smith & Wesson Model 3 "Schofield" revolver, replaced the Colt 1860 Army Percussion revolver. The Colt quickly gained favor over the S&W and remained the primary US military sidearm until 1892 when it was replaced by the .38 Long Colt caliber Colt Model 1892, a double-action revolver with swing-out cylinder. By the end of 1874, serial no. 16,000 was reached; 12,500 Colt Single Action Army revolvers chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge had entered service and the remaining revolvers were sold in the civilian market.

The Colt .45 is a famous piece of American history, known as "The Gun That Won the West". The Single Action army is a very popular firearm, even today, and it continues to be produced in various configurations.

IMA considers all of our antique guns as non-firing, inoperable and/or inert. Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 921(a)(16) defines antique firearms as all guns made prior to 1899. This law exempts antique firearms from any form of gun control or special engineering because they are not legally considered firearms. No FFL, C&R or any license is required to posses, transport, sell or trade Antique guns. All rifles and muskets sold by IMA that were manufactured prior to 1899 are considered Antiques by the US BATF (United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms). Therefore, all of IMA's Antique guns may be shipped to all US States and most nations around the world.

These antique guns are not sold in live condition. They are sold as collector’s items or as wall hangers. Any attempt at restoring an antique gun to be operational is strongly discouraged and is done so at the risk of the customer. By purchasing an antique gun from IMA you thereby release IMA, its employees and corporate officers from any and all liability associated with use of our Antique guns.

Pre-1899 Manufacture, no licenses required, allowed to ship to almost any deliverable address across the globe. Please note that for international shipping, these MUST be shipped using UPS WW Services.